I have ordered meals in all of them: In France, it’s called a bistro; in Germany, a gasthaus; and in England, a pub. All are small neighborhood places where you take your friends, bosses, daughters, lovers, husbands, or just yourself. They’re part of daily life, like the church you go to or the place you work.… Continue reading →

There doesn’t need to be an occasion to serve turkey. Turkey breast is an easy meal with a lot of possibilities. Add some pretty color by way of fresh vegetables. Here’s a quick tip for slow cooking and making colors pop. Don’t add some veggies until halfway through the cooking process. Potatoes and onion should be added… Continue reading →

Linda Roy sent me this recipe for Mushroom Orzo that her family liked. She served it with smoked duck and roasted Brussels sprouts, and the whole meal was a hit with everyone. Orzo (meaning “barley” in Italian) is small, rice-shaped pasta that is wonderful when served in place of rice. Roy combined a couple… Continue reading →

Trying to decide on what to serve for your Easter Sunday dinner? Ham will be center stage on many Easter tables. We have lots of choices as to what kind to buy. There’s the big whole ham that many of you will be having; the tasty, hickory-smoked Virginia hams with the dark red meat; the popular… Continue reading →

Give a mouse a cookie, and he’ll want a glass of milk. Give Graham Blackall chicken and waffles, and the 20-year-old might want to bake you a cake. The Loyola student and New Orleans native is a baking aficionado at a young age and is the lively intellect behind the nationally popular blog Glazed and… Continue reading →

Chef Nina Compton, a St. Lucia native who was the runner-up on Bravo’s “Top Chef Season 11: New Orleans” television program, will open her first restaurant this summer at the Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery in New Orleans. The soon-to-open Warehouse Arts District hotel is the latest from Provenance Hotels. Compton, who trained in the… Continue reading →

Holiday Specials presented by Domino Foods Inc. will provide free admission on Saturday to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans for Louisiana’s kids and their families to visit and make traditional St. Joseph’s Day treats. The St. Joseph’s Day celebration will include a… Continue reading →

The banana pudding cake tasted heavenly. Unfortunately, Boil & Roux is not a bakery. Dining on a Sunday with my family, a day when my favorite crawfish spot is typically closed, we decided it would be cool to give another boiler a try. Ready to order several pounds for the table, we were appalled to learn that… Continue reading →

By the prodigious standards of New Orleans festivals, the food component for last weekend’s India Fest in City Park was small. Just three local restaurants — Taj Mahal, Saffron NOLA and Silk Road — supplied a mix of traditional and modern dishes. But as a representative slice of Indian cooking around the New Orleans area, this spread… Continue reading →

My family likes just plain baked chicken. The kind that bakes long and slow and you keep basting with the pan juices. My brother calls it “sticky chicken” because the juices begin to thicken and the skin gets sticky. I remember my mother seasoning the chicken the night before. I seldom do that since I’m much more… Continue reading →

Starting to find it difficult to come up with a meatless meal each Friday during Lent? During Lent, many Christians use prayer, penance, fasting and good works to prepare for the celebration of Easter, which this year is on April 5. In south Louisiana, with its abundance of fresh seafood, abstinence from meat on Fridays isn’t… Continue reading →

Stuck in a rut when it comes to the old spaghetti and meatballs? Trying something new can be as simple as the meat you choose. Ground turkey might be a viable choice, especially if you’re looking to make the old favorite a bit more healthful. Toward that goal, try some of the no-salt canned tomato products as… Continue reading →

HH “Gumbo: a SAVOR THE SOUTH cookbook” by Dale Curry 114-page hardcover “Shrimp: a SAVOR THE SOUTH cookbook” by Jay Pierce 116-page hardcover “Catfish: a SAVOR THE SOUTH cookbook” by Paul Knipple and Angela Knipple All from… Continue reading →

This simple artichoke soup is nice to have with a sandwich for lunch or to serve before supper if you’re having a light meal. The recipe makes almost 2 quarts, but it can easily be halved if you need less. It calls for three cans of artichoke hearts and one can of artichoke bottoms. The artichoke hearts… Continue reading →

Chefs from across the United States are being asked to apply for a chance to battle in the first-ever Farm to Table Chefs Taste Challenge set for Aug. 7 in conjunction with the Farm to Table International Conference in New Orleans. The food competition is aimed “at broadening awareness for the use of fresh, healthy,… Continue reading →

Green or red, that is the question. Don’t pass Alyssa’s Chile House and think they neglected to take down their Christmas lights. It’s all part of the theme. Customers will notice the wait staff wearing T-shirts that read “Green or Red?” Take a look at the menu and there’s the question again. Green… Continue reading →

When we taste a recipe we particularly like while dining out, many of us take to our cookbooks or, in the modern world of technology, online to try and duplicate it. Cindy Leopold has enjoyed chicken pho at different Vietnamese restaurants she and her family frequent. She found a recipe, but before long realized she didn’t have… Continue reading →

Let everyone have their own upside-down cake by making them individually in glass baking cups. These cakes are easy and fun to make. That little sweetness in the bottom of the baking cup is just enough to glaze the top of the dessert when it’s turned over onto a dessert plate. In place of the traditional pineapple… Continue reading →

Local chefs and grocers are helping keep alive the tradition of St. Joseph Altars, including the one at the Cypress Springs Mercedarian Prayer Center in Baton Rouge. The center “depends on the goodwill of the community and volunteers for the food that’s served,” said Debi Grymes, who coordinates the volunteer efforts for the altar. The altar,… Continue reading →

Since St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church was established in 1841 in New Orleans’ Tremé neighborhood, it has been “a church of the city’s free black citizens.” But, it also has had some strong Italian connections, said church secretary Linda Harris in explaining why the church hosts an annual St. Joseph’s Altar. “The church has been doing… Continue reading →

HHH “Better Homes and Gardens The Ultimate Cookie Book Second Edition: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $19.99 480-page paperback One should never consider offering a store-bought treat when serving on the refreshment committee for a Baton Rouge Art League meeting, I’ve decided. That’s because most members… Continue reading →

Cancer Services of Greater Baton Rouge is taking orders for its spring jambalaya fund-raiser, which will be held at 11:30 a.m. April 10 at its headquarters at 550 Lobdell Ave., Baton Rouge. The nonprofit organization partners annually with Knights of Columbus Councils No. 3331 and… Continue reading →

The Chef John Folse Institute at Nicholls State University honored Baton Rouge restaurateur Thomas J. “TJ” Moran on Sunday night at its annual “Dinner of the Century” at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans. Moran was inducted into the Lafcadio Hearn Hall of Honor, which recognizes those “who have had a lasting influence on the cuisine… Continue reading →

The trick to making a nutritious breakfast a daily habit is never being more than 60 seconds away from something healthy. Because in the morning rush, it’s too easy to grab something unhealthy. Lately, my go-to quick and healthy choice has been oat pudding, mostly because my kids love it. But I also like the staying power… Continue reading →

Our first trip to Red Robin was postponed due to the one hour minimum wait for a table. Apparently their advertising campaign — “Yum” — was effective. Our second trip behind the Mall of Louisiana, however, had us in out of the cold in no time and seated in a booth with leather seats in the bar… Continue reading →

Authenticity can be a fraught notion in the dining world, with so many different and subjective standards, but it can seem almost antithetical when applied to Tiki. An all-American, midcentury mash-up of South Seas imagery, souped-up Caribbean rum punches and quasi-Cantonese cooking, from the start Tiki had about as much reverence for cultural fidelity as a… Continue reading →

Crawfish Supreme in Puff Pastry Shells is an old recipe that made its debut many years ago in Baton Rouge. There are several variations of this recipe, and you may even know it by a different name, but it’s basically crawfish tails, butter, cream, seasoning and a splash of sherry. It was popular for small… Continue reading →

Like many New Orleans natives, food writer Jyl Benson is passionate about her hometown’s cuisine. She has used her knowledge about the city’s favorite restaurants to produce a charming cookbook that both locals and tourists will want to add to their kitchen libraries. The book’s title, “Fun, Funky and Fabulous: New Orleans’ Casual Restaurant Recipes,” is a… Continue reading →

The Thursday Red Stick Farmers Market, which meets behind Pennington Biomedical Research Center, won’t be held Thursday morning, March 5, but should return to its regular winter schedule next week, a spokeswoman said. Saturday’s farmers market will be held from 8 a.m. to… Continue reading →

Chef Tom Wolfe has returned to New Orleans to join the Omni Royal Orleans’ Rib Room culinary team as executive chef. The award-winning chef has more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of the restaurant world, a news release said. He worked at some of New Orleans’ top restaurants before spending the past several years… Continue reading →

A dizzying array of new food products hit store shelves each month, including plenty of particular interest to south Louisiana cooks. For example, those who like to imbibe in the Bloody Mary cocktail will want to try Tony Chachere’s new Creole Style Bloody Mary mix. Made with the popular Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning, the mix is simple to use… Continue reading →

Eating a salad a day is a habit I adopted a while back to help me automate the eating of raw veggies. Either my lunch or my dinner usually is built around some sort of salad. And I try to stay true to the spirit of healthier eating when I do so. Meaning fried chicken tenders propped on… Continue reading →

Baton Rouge seems to be big and Tex-Mexy enough to support at least one taco truck. What about a taco restaurant? Looks like we’re going to find out. There is more to the Taco Chops Cantina menu than tacos, but not by a whole lot. Its owners, who grew up in Mexico, are betting the ranch… Continue reading →

As an Israeli restaurant, the newly-opened Shaya doesn’t have much precedent in New Orleans. But it does have plenty of familiar touchstones. Meals start with pita bread, hot from the wood-fired oven in the dining room. And the menu offers falafel, lamb kebabs and hummus (in four varieties) before any potentially new vocabulary comes your… Continue reading →

A trip to the local farmers market is all I need to make me want to get cooking. I recently came home with Louisiana Gulf shrimp, mustard greens, beautiful carrots, turnips, Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard and pork chops. I like shrimp simply prepared with just garlic, a hint of wine and lemon. That way if you have… Continue reading →

February is a good month in my book to experiment with soup. You don’t necessarily have to discount the old-timers in your experiment. While there are new and exciting ways to make soup these days, sometimes the best choice is an old tried-and-true that just needs some reviving. Take tomato soup, for example. Many of us grew… Continue reading →

Courtney McCullough Moss, who as a child grew up as my neighbor, is now a mother of three. I like it when young parents tell me about a great recipe they’ve tried or about something their family likes. Recently, Courtney mentioned how much her children, McCullough, 5, and Charlotte, 3, like vegetables. “If they see Brussels sprouts… Continue reading →

Beginning at sundown on March 4, Jews around the world will celebrate Purim, a holiday often compared with Mardi Gras for its feasting, drinking and masquerading. The roots of Purim, as related in the Biblical Book of Esther, go back to ancient Persia, where the Jews were prosperous and prominent. King Ahasuerus, believed by scholars to… Continue reading →

Lorraine Wallace believes it’s important that families sit down together for supper. But as a home cook she knows getting supper on the table is easier said than done, the wife of “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace writes in her third cookbook, “Mr. & Mrs. Sunday’s Suppers.” While an empty-nester now, she says she spent years… Continue reading →

The ninth annual “Chili for Children” Louisiana State & Regional Chili Cook-offs will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 14-15 in front of John M. Parker Coliseum at Stadium and Highland Road on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge.… Continue reading →

Fresh-faced, yet utterly jet-lagged. That’s how I arrived in France for the first time. And that’s how I was introduced to Belgian endive. Madame Gabillet was hosting me for my college semester abroad, and she welcomed me right off the plane into her chilly, dark home. Dinner was waiting, so we sat right down and rather silently… Continue reading →

Normally, I’m a big fan of a limited menu. A restaurant that tries to be all things to all people usually ends up being nothing to anyone, and a reasonably small menu often means that everything on there is done well. Spice Bistro and Bar’s Southern-fried menu has one more thing going for it. It’s full… Continue reading →